Since January 3 and until January 7 the German Baseball Academy (Deutsche Baseball Akademie, DBA) is running its annual DBA Winterball Camp at the Ahorn Sportpark in Paderborn. It is already the ninth edition. 55 German players from the age categories U16, U15 and U14 attend the training camp. They were invited following four camps and the DBA All Star Tournament last summer.
From these 55, players will be selected for the various German youth national teams of the aforementioned age categories, which are scheduled to attend an Easter training camp in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, the LR Open in Montpellier, the PONY League European Qualifier in Prague, the European Cadets Championship in the Czech Republic, the IBAF 15U Baseball World Championship in Mexico and tournaments in Amsterdam and the United States.
Coaches of the DBA are head coach Georg Bull, Octavio Medina, Michael Franke, Jens Hawlitzky, Ulli Wermuth and Alper Bozkurt. During the DBA Winterball Camp American coach and Milwaukee Brewers scout Nate Trosky from San Francisco will be on hand. Also current and future minor leaguers Kai Gronauer (New York Mets) and Daniel Thieben (Seattle Mariners) will make the trip to Paderborn.